Thomas Tuchel has admitted he was “irritated” at Chelsea’s decision to offer him an 18-month contract at the club.
The German coach was appointed as Blues boss following Frank Lampard’s departure from Stamford Bridge and has had an impressive stint so far, with Chelsea now in the semi-finals of the Champions League and into the FA Cup final.
Tuchel has taken charge of 12 Premier League games and the recent 5-2 loss to West Brom is the only defeat he’s suffered in the competition as it stands.
But Tuchel admitted that before he took over, he had some doubts about taking the job because of Roman Abramovich’s ruthless approach with former managers.
Since Abramovich took ownership of the west London club around 18 years ago, there have been 11 different permanent managers – not to mention those in an interim role, so Tuchel’s slight doubts are perhaps justified.
Video Unavailable
Speaking to Gary Lineker on BBC One, the former Paris Saint-Germain manager said: “That was something to consider (Chelsea’s approach with managers).
“I come from a situation where we won four titles and a Champions League final and then I was sacked at Christmas.
“These situations obviously can happen, which was not nice. When I heard from my lawyer that it’s about 18 months, I was irritated, I thought they didn’t trust me, they already had another idea coming up.
“But then I thought: ‘Hey, come on. You can have a five-year contract and if you don’t deliver, then you’ll be out anyway’. The excitement was much bigger than the doubt.”
Do you want all the latest news from around Chelsea Football Club straight to your email inbox?
Of course you do.
By signing up for our Chelsea newsletter, you will receive a twice-daily email, focused on all the latest news from Stamford Bridge.
And, not only that, but you will get exclusive content from our club writers Sam Inkersole and Adam Newson before anyone else.
You won’t miss a thing when it comes to the Blues.
How do you sign up?
It’s easy and only takes seconds.
Simply type your email address into the box at the top of this article – or any article on the Chelsea section of football.london in fact – labelled ‘Get the biggest daily stories by email’ and click ‘Subscribe’.
Alternatively, you can click here and tick the Chelsea box to subscribe for our Blues newsletter.
If you decide later that you no longer wish to receive the emails, simply follow the unsubscribe link in one of the newsletters – but we don’t think you’ll want to.
Tuchel has had a really positive impact on the Blues since taking over from Lampard earlier this year.
Chelsea are in the Champions League semi-final for the first time since the 2013/14 season, with the German looking to beat Real Madrid in the last four and go on to secure the club’s second-ever triumph in the historic competition.
The Blues manager was beaten in the final of the tournament during the 2019/20 campaign when he was in charge at PSG and will be looking to do one better this time around.